Sustainability is business as usual for Wieland

Wieland Textiel is a family business that stems from a long tradition of textile recycling that goes back to the collection and sorting of 'rags' in the 1960s in Amsterdam. The current Wieland Textiel was founded in 1984 by René Wieland. In 1997 Hans Bon became a partner and co-director. In Wormerveer (since 2000), Hans and René developed the company together into a modern, sustainable company that has elevated the sorting and sale of second-hand textiles to art. Matters such as attractive purchase prices, fair trade, certified quality assurance, chain transparency, good terms of employment and investing in sustainable innovations are 'business as usual' for Wieland!

When René decided to withdraw in 2016, he sold his shares of Wieland Textiel to his partner Hans Bon. As director-owner, Hans has since run the company together with his sons, employees Marja, Ali, Mustaffa and Aneta, and a capable, highly motivated staff of people who have often worked at Wieland for many years.

Our history

Wieland's story reflects the prosperity history of Western Europe

The story of Wieland Textiel bears various characteristics of post-war prosperity development in Western Europe. After starting as a small family business in the rag trade in the 1960s, the range of discarded textiles grew so fast in the 1970s that the company was able to open its first 'sorting factory' in 1984 with rationally streamlined, semi-automated business processes. Partly thanks to the successful sale of the well-sorted, second-hand clothing in what was then still called the 'Third World', the company was able to grow further from 2000 at the new location in Wormerveer. The increasing concerns about the sustainability of this 'prosperity' around the turn of the century were also reason for Wieland to continue to develop as a 'sustainable company'.

At the end of the 1960s, the brothers Cor, Bob and Henk Wieland started a rag sorting shop in Amsterdam. They mainly focused on the recovery of valuable raw materials from the used textiles, including for cleaning rags. After all, the collected textiles contained little usable clothing at the time, because most of the clothing was still completely worn out. Under the influence of increasing prosperity, the share of re-wearable clothing continued to increase over the years. In the 1980s, the market for second-hand textiles had changed so much that the company could not be continued on the old way. The brothers decided to close their business so that they could each start their own new company.

The eldest brother Henk Wieland hung up his cleaning rags and made room for his son René, who had been working in the business for a number of years. René founded Wieland Textiel in 1984 and settled in the former business premises of his father and uncles in Lijnden (North Holland). In 1997 Hans Bon accepted the invitation of his old school friend René to join the board of Wieland. The collaboration proved fruitful and new development opportunities soon opened up. In 2000, Wieland Textiel moved to its current location in Wormerveer to enable expansion and further modernization.

Contrary to the old family business, Wieland Textiel works from the outset according to a business model in which the main income is generated from the sale of second-hand clothing to buyers abroad. To this day, that is the float on which the company thrives. High-quality recycling of the textile materials (approx. 38% of the collected textiles), based on the Lansink Ladder, has become increasingly important in recent years. On the one hand, this stems from the increasing focus on sustainable reuse of valuable raw materials. On the other hand, it is important for the profitability of the company, since the costs for sorting textile materials have so far exceeded the revenues. So, the more of these materials that can be recycled at a good price, the better.

Vision, mission & strategy

Wieland wants to take giant steps on the transition path to a circular textile industry

The urgency of a quick and effective transition to a circular textile industry has never been greater than it is now. The negative impact of today's linear textile chain on people, the environment and the economy is therefore of a dizzying magnitude. From poor and often dangerous working conditions for millions of people working in the textile chain to the bizarre waste of raw materials - less than 1% of the total amount of raw materials for clothing is reused for the production of new clothing. And of the sizeable contribution of the textile industry to the plastic soup - an estimated 0.5 million tons of plastic microfibers from clothing have already ended up in the oceans as a result of leaching during washing -to the industry's mega share in global greenhouse gas emissions, a share that is greater than the total emissions from international aviation and shipping combined! In other words, the textile industry is facing an epic transition challenge.

Wieland is firmly convinced that these sad trends can be reversed with system innovations aimed at the creation of circular textile chains. Important search directions for these system innovations are:

• phasing out substances that are alien to the ecosystem from textile materials and products,
• transition to and effective use of renewable raw materials,
• development of loan services based on renewable textile materials and products,
• designs for high-quality reuse and
• radical improvement of systems for the collection, sorting and recycling of textiles.

With Fibersort, Wieland Textiel and Valvan have developed a crucial system innovation with which giant steps can be taken towards the upcycling of raw materials from discarded clothing. After all, Fibersort opens the way for a quick and (cost-) effective recovery of fibers from used textile materials that are suitable as raw material for the production of new clothing. The importance of this system innovation is increasing because the acceptance of second-hand clothing from Western Europe on sales markets in Africa and Asia in particular is gradually declining, partly due to the fast-growing supply of cheap, new clothing from China. The already gigantic waste of valuable raw materials in the textile chain threatens to increase even further.

Against this background, it is Wieland Textiel's mission to contribute to ensuring that every 'new' garment on the world market consists of at least 20 percent of previously used fibers within 10 years.

Based on this ambition, Wieland is working with governments and leaders in the textile industry to form new, circular chains around the collection, sorting and upcycling of discarded textiles for the production of new and renewable clothing. In this way, Wieland wants to take giant steps on the transition path to a sustainable, circular textile industry.